Matric candidates: request to relax age bar rejected
Karachi, July 19, 2008: The Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC), a
representative body of all educational boards of the country, has turned down a
request from the NWFP for lifting the age bar on the candidates appearing in the
matriculation examination.

The request for relaxing the minimum age from
14 years, as fixed recently, to lower side for SSC part-II candidates was
forwarded by the NWFP government to the IBCC and was discussed at a recent
meeting of the committee. However, the participants did not approve it on the
grounds that such a relaxation could encourage the trend of double promotion at
schools level and could also affect the quality of education.

An IBCC
member who attended the meeting said on Friday that another proposal
forwarded by the committee of chairmen of the Punjab educational boards was also
rejected by the IBCC. The proposal pertained to allowing Science group students
to appear as private candidates in the board's examinations.

The
participants argued that the Science group examinations involved practicals and
private candidates could not avail such facilities for preparation and practical
examination. Moreover, they said, private candidates could not meet the
condition of 75 per cent attendance which was mandatory for all the candidates
appearing in the board examinations across the country.

The IBCC member
said that the meeting was not approve of a request from the Allama Iqbal Open
University for the grant of certificate-awarding status for the AIOU in the case
of Intermediate Science (Pre-medical) group. It was noted that the university
was basically a distant learning educational institution.

He said that
although all the IBCC members opposed the proposal on the grounds that such a
decision would amount to a violation of the rules governing the educational
boards, the meeting decided to refer the matter to its select committee for an
advice. It was decided that the matter would be discussed at the next IBCC
meeting in the light of the select committee's report.

According to Prof
Ahmed Zai, the chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK)
and also a member of the IBCC, all decisions taken at the IBCC forum are
required to be implemented by all educational boards of the country in letter
and spirit to ensure a uniform policy to be pursued by all
boards. Dawn

New promotion policy for SBTE exams
Karachi: Those who fail in four or more subjects should not be promoted
to the second year. This was unanimously agreed upon at an inter-provincial
conference of the controllers of examinations of the Technical Education Boards
held recently. This was announced by the Controller of Examinations of the Sindh
Board of Technical Education (SBTE), Karachi, Prof. Siraj-ul-Islam Bukhari, on
Friday.

He said that it was first time that the Controllers of
Examinations of all four boards attended the two-day moot to consider drawing
out a uniform policy for the conduct of technical and vocational education in
the country as well as the policy of the promotion of candidates.

The
agenda included considering the existing attendance and promotion rules of DAE,
D.Com., DBA, and TSE courses and necessary amendments to make the existing rules
for all technical boards uniform.

The conference considered the uniform
grace marks policy and number attempts/gaps for students appearing in regular
courses, and it was agreed that the grace marks policy for the technical
education should be in accordance with its needs. It was also agreed that a
candidate who failed in four or more subjects in the first year should not be
promoted to the second year. It was agreed that another meeting of the
controller of examinations would be convened on August 19 and 20 to finalise the
remaining recommendations. The News

Tribute to 108-year-old Aligarh student
Karachi: The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET)
Chancellor Z.A. Nizami, along with a delegation of the Aligarh Muslim University
Old Boys Association (AMUOBA) met Nisar Ahmed Khan, a 108-year-old ex student of
the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The delegation announced that the AMUOBA,
in collaboration with the SSUET, will be honoring the legendary Aligarhian on
his birthday on September 29.

Nisar Ahmed Khan was born in Ghaziabad,
District Meeruth, Uttar Pradesh in 1901 and completed his Bachelors in Science
from the AMU in 1927. He then went to the US for further education and before
Pakistan had come into being, was appointed as the Uttar Pradesh Agriculture
Director, with a posting in Rampur.

Khan is the oldest living student of
AMU who participated in the silver jubilee celebrations of the university in
1925 and had the opportunity to meet many influential leaders, including Maulana
Mohammed Ali Jauhar, Maharaja Mahmoodabad and Nawab Muzammal Khan. Post
partition, he served in several positions in the agriculture department of
Dhaka. App